Continuing Newstalgia's look at Conventions past, here is the Keynote address by Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt at the 1956 Democratic Convention. Adlai Stevenson was once again the Standard Bearer and it was this convention that the name of Sen. John F. Kennedy was first foisted into the spotlight as potential Presidential material, by being considered a vice-Presidential running mate for Stevenson. Kennedy declined and the VP slot went to Estes Kefauver, whose Crime Committee hearings made him a household name to millions of voters.

Here is Eleanor Roosevelt's complete address from that convention.

A very visible presence in the political world of the early 1950's, Estes Kefauver gained a reputation for his Crime Committee hearings. He would later be tapped as running mate to Adlai Stevenson in the 1956 Presidential campaign. But here is he, giving a postmortem to the 1950 midterm elections in this 1950 episode of Meet The Press.

Lawrence Spivak (Meet The Press): “Senator, there are many Democrats who believe that your crime investigations had a marked effect upon the elections. What do you think?

Sen. Estes Kefauver: “Mister Spivak, I think the Democratic Party deserves some control for fostering this committee to investigate. I think we may have done some harm to the immediate candidates in some parts of the country. But on the whole, I believe the American people approve when any Administration is trying to do something to clean up one of the greatest menaces that we have in America today. So it works both ways.”

Kefauver is all but forgotten now, but there was a time he wielded an enormous amount of influence around Capitol Hill and his Crime Commission had just as many admirers as detractors. Such is the case of politics - you can't please everybody.

This first week in May of 1954 saw the beginning of the infamous Army-McCarthy Hearings regarding Communist infiltrators within the Military. This broadcast, from May 5th, wraps up the days proceedings from May 4th, which was Day Nine in the seemingly never-ending hearings.

This was one of the first gavel-to-gavel live Senate hearings to be broadcast on radio and television. The first was the legendary Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings, and the audience for those hearings went through the roof.

Likewise with the Army-McCarthy Hearings, some four years later. These hearings were epitomized by the now-famous showdown between Chief Counsel Welsh and Sen. Joe McCarthy several weeks later that ended in the quote "Have you no shame, Senator?".

These days, with C-Span, we take hearings like this for granted. But in 1954 it was a first glimpse for many into the inner-workings of Capitol Hill.

So here is Day 9 as reported by George Herman and Griffing Bancroft of CBS Radio with excerpts from the days proceedings (for those who missed it live).

1952 was certainly an interesting election year. Since Harry Truman declined the run for a second term, it blew the playing field wide open for both Republicans and Democrats.

The radio documentary, first aired on June 2, 1952, the day before the California and South Dakota primaries.

What's curious about this primary, the last one until the respective Conventions, it features none of the eventual Presidential candidates on the ballot. The Republicans were voting for California Governor Earl Warren and the Democrats were voting either for Estes Kefauver or a ballot originally intended for Harry Truman. Eisenhower was late in declaring his intentions and there appears to be no word about Adlai Stevenson, both would eventually become their party's Presidential candidate. Which just goes to show you how much the election process has changed over the years.

This half hour broadcast analyzes the upcoming election and features a number of interviews with key members of both parties as well as how the individual voter feels.

There really are no parallels to draw between the '52 election and the '12 election. It seems as though the entire political process has become unrecognizable in the sixty years since.

And maybe that's the problem.

(Frank Costello at the Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings - taking the Fifth to new vistas)

With the Korean War grinding on and the country gearing up for the 1952 elections, the big spectacle of the year on Radio and Television was the Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings on Capitol Hill. Organized crime had become a way of life and gambling was its biggest commodity. With Mafia figures lined up to testify (or refuse to testify as was the case), the country was riveted to each new revelation and intrigued by the parade of exotic names attached to the hearings and being grilled by 1952 Vice-presidential hopeful Estes Kefauver.

The Cold War was also in full bloom, with the trial of accused spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and General MacArthur relieved of his command in Korea.

All in all, 1951 was a pretty interesting year and far from a dull one.

But then, most aren't dull in retrospect anyway.

And the same is true with this one.

don't forget . .